If you’re reading this, chances are you’re a fan of scholastic wrestling — the skill, the strength, the discipline — all of the features that make the sport the best winter activity since rustling around under the covers.

But perfect?

Is the sport, as it is now, above some tinkering or tweaking?

Apparently not, at least according to some local wrestling coaches, who claimed there are few things they would consider changing if they were suddenly declared Mat Kings, or Keeper of the Mats or the Big Kahunas of Wrestling or some such title.

At the top of Plymouth Whitemarsh head coach Nate Wachter’s wish list, for example, would be to tailor the sport in order to limit both stalling and putting match results in the hands of referees.

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“I’d like to allow video protests,” Wachter said. “It’s something they allow in college, and I’d like to see it instituted at this level.

“I was a big fan of the Real Pro Wrestling, when it was on TV, and I liked their format. The mat was raised, and if a wrestler was pushed off, he lost. That would do a lot to stop the stalling that goes on in matches.

“The other thing they did was use three judges to score the match. Each would score it individually, then the three of them would confer and arrive at the match’s final score. I’d prefer that.”

Wachter also suggested bringing back some of the moves that were legal when he first got hooked on the sport.“Some of the rules I see today are castrating the sport, if you want to use that word,” Wachter said. “I understand they’re looking out for the best interests of the wrestlers, but so many of the moves I grew up with are no longer legal.

“Things like belly bumps should still be allowed, and cutting out your opponent’s legs out when cutting him loose. I know they’re trying to protect the wrestlers, but I’d like to see some moves brought back.”

Perkiomen Valley head coach Tim Walsh brought up a suggestion that’s been debated back and forth for years.

“I’d like to see riding time like there is in college,” Walsh said. “Right now, there’s no incentive for riding a guy out for two minutes, other than to beat him up a little bit. There’s no reward for wrestling tough on the mat.”

Walsh conceded his suggestion would be difficult to implement in these days of shrinking education budgets.

“I don’t know how it would be calculated,” he said, “I guess you’d need a new clock and you’d have to pay people do it, and I don’t know if schools would want to put out the money for those things.

“But I’d like to see it.”

What Wissahickon mat boss Anthony Stagliano would like to see is a renewed emphasis on pinning combinations.

“I’m not big on tilts,” Stagliano said. “To me, there’s too much emphasis on tilts and not enough on pinning people.

“If you turn your opponent with something that’s not a pinning combination, like a cradle or a bar, I might give one and two (near-fall points) instead of two and three. I’d want to de-emphasize the tilt and emphasize the pin.”

Methacton head coach A.J. Maida’s suggestion would be to knock out a weight class or two.

“I’m actually OK with the weight changes that were recently done, but I think we might have one or two too many.”

Maida would also like to see fewer changes to the existing rules.

“If I had a rule, it would be you can only change the rules every five years,” he said. “They keep changing things, and sometimes it’s almost like you’re seeing solutions in search of a problem.”

As for Norristown boss Mark Harner, his wishes were many, but at the top of his list was a change to the OPC, the computerized weigh-in program that strives to safely regulate a wrestler’s weight loss.

“I know a lot of coaches have complained about it,” Harner said. “If you want your guys to wrestle up and come in a little heavy for a match and he weighs in two pounds over, he has to wait a week before he can wrestle down at his (regular) weight again. It can be a real headache.”

But Harner wasn’t through, and he said he’d like to see more consistency when it comes to an official calling stalling.

“Whatever they determine is fine,” the Eagles coach said, “but then they have to be consistent with it. You don’t what the standard is, and it can drive you nuts.”

Harner also suggested using the college rule for out of bounds, which is that both wrestlers have to be completely out for the action to be stopped.

But overall, Harner said, wrestling has to find a way to appeal to the masses.

“Wrestling’s popular in some areas, but generally it’s just not that popular with most people who watch high school sports,” he said. “You have to find a way to make it more entertaining. If it were possible, I’d put a moat around the mat and if a kid got pushed off the mat he’d go into the moat — anything to spruce the sport up.”

As a personal note, here’s a vote for making sure that wrestlers clearly and loudly pronounce their names when reporting in to the scorer’s table, and that those names be announced over the P.A.

How many times at a dual meet should a coach have to approach the table asking who’s wrestling to make sure he’s getting the right matchup?

If names are not pronounced clearly, said wrestlers should be penalized a match point, much as if he arrived without the laces of his shoes taped.

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This week’s edition of the Area Rankings had to be completed despite a mammoth blackout that rendered our sub-space satellite useless, forcing our colleagues from the Australian Analysis Bureau, where the video information is examined, to swim the results over to our eager hands. We thank the AAB for its diligence and wish them well in the upcoming World Swimming Championships (Records through Feb. 3):